The World Health Day 2023 with the theme, “Health for All,” aligns with the mission of the International Society for Infectious Diseases (ISID) to support health professionals, non-government organizations, and governments around the world in their work to prevent, investigate, and manage infectious disease outbreaks when they occur. ISID has a particular focus in countries that have limited resources and which disproportionately bear the burden of infectious diseases.
In recent times, the COVID-19 pandemic has shown how intricately linked health problems particularly infectious diseases in any location pose a global problem eventually. The pandemic showed the capacity and ability of researchers to work together towards the diagnosis, management, and eventual development of vaccines to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic.
In addition, the pandemic showed the disparity worldwide in access to the COVID-19 vaccines when they became available. Interventions like the COVAX facility helped make vaccine distribution more equitable and available particularly in low-resource settings that ordinarily would not have access to it. The pandemic came to light with the ISID innovative surveillance, Program for Monitoring Emerging Diseases (ProMED), that provides real time early warning reports on emerging and re-emerging diseases.
We at the ISID believe and work hard to promote innovation and new ideas in research by providing grants/fellowships and publications of research (IJID, IJID Regions, and IJID One Health). We also believe in the ongoing capacity building of the health workforce by offering educational opportunities like the Knowledge Exchange, the Congress, and the Meeting. These we believe would improve prevention and control of the infectious diseases by increasing the capacity of the health workforce to provide quality care to all, irrespective of their location.
The World Health Day 2023 theme, “Health for All,” serves as a reminder and call to action that all hands must be on deck to achieve this laudable goal.
